Developing Scissor Skills...

Last summer I shared that Andrew had been struggling a bit with his scissor skills and that I was hoping to focus on helping him to develop his strength and confidence with some new activities. We've continued to work away, cutting lots of different materials and I am happy to say that his attitude and ability have greatly improved!! I wanted to share one of the activities he has enjoyed the most. It combines scissor practice with letter sounds and structure… bonus!

This Scissor Skill Development activity is something your little one can work on over many sittings. It takes a few minutes to set up at first, but is then ready to go for for the future with minimal prep. To make "Andrew's Book of Letters" I joined 15 pieces of colourful card stock with two ring clips. Using the front and back of each page I printed each letter of the alphabet (one letter per page), followed by "is for". 

When it is time to work on the cutting activity, Andrew cuts scrap paper into small pieces until he has a small pile. We talk about the letter we are focusing on, brainstorming a good word to complete the "is for" sentence. We trace the large printed letter with our finger a few times and he glues the paper pieces to the large printed letter. 

I found these scissors at Target. They have a small spring loaded switch that can be flipped up to help the scissors open up easily between snips. Andrew really likes them and thinks they help him to go "super speed"! He also enjoys using my scrap booking scissors. 

This has been a great activity for Andrew. It keeps him busy for just the right amount of time (before he loses interest and moves onto something else) and is well suited for him as a tactile learner. I have seen some great gains in his cutting accuracy, but more importantly he is much less frustrated when working with scissors. Success!

You may also find this helpful. 

Scissor Skills for Preschoolers

Scissor Skills for Preschoolers

Andrew recently finished a week of Nature Camp at the Irvine Nature Centre. This is where he attends preschool throughout the school year and I love that he is able to go and meet up with his friends and teachers and stay familiar with his school routine for a week or two throughout the summer. When I was picking Andrew up from his first day of camp I noticed all of the other little campers proudly showing their parents a snake craft that they had made from a paper plate. Andrew's wasn't in his cubby and when I asked about it he pulled it out of his back pack, only partially complete. I could tell by the look on his face that he was not happy about the project. Once we were home, I asked about the snake and he told me he didn't finish it because he "is no good at cutting". To make matters worse he said that the other kids brought their snakes out on the hike that morning but he left his in his backpack because "it kept reminding him that he can't cut". My heart was broken, and to add to the mommy guilt was the fact that his teachers even told me that some extra practice with scissors would be a good idea for Andrew over the summer. I think we had only sat down to work on cutting once, maybe twice.

Here is the photo I sent to Rob to tell him the story.

Looking at his cutting you can see that he is meticulous about staying on the line his teacher drew. I have taught many children with this approach to perfection, and it completely paralyzes their ability to complete a learning task. They're the ones that rub a hole clear through the page in an attempt to print their name the "right way". I really don't want Andrew to feel this kind of pressure when he enters school.

Anyway, once the Mommy guilt subsided I decided to take a more productive approach to the situation and prepare a few activities that would help Andrew with his scissor skills without the pressure of "staying on the line".... especially not a spiralled one! I read some great articles, pinned some fun activities and we have been spending lots of time cutting paper, and grass and leaves and just about anything we can find in the backyard. Andrew loves my collection of scrap booking scissors and really enjoys punching holes in leaves while we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  I'm happy that he is working on his hand strength and I've kept the snake to try again before the summer is out.

Here is a collection of my favourite activity ideas. The links to each website is listed underneath, they are all chalked full of amazing learning ideas!

Creative Connections for Kids

Happy Hooligans

No Time for Flashcards

Teach Preschool

One Perfect Day

Printable Flash Cards for Preschoolers

Over the past few months Andrew and I have been working really hard on his reading. We have been using lessons from this book, along with other activities and seeing some great progress! The book suggests to work through one lesson everyday. This pace is starting to be a bit fast for Andrew, so we often do other activities to reinforce what he's learned before moving onto the next lesson.

Flash Cards have been very helpful when working on sight words and letter sounds. I like to make my own flash cards using PicMonkey, so that I can add graphics or phonetic notation.

This week I decided to spice things up a bit for Andrew, and threw in some of his favourite Super Heroes and Villains. I made two sets of these cards, one with a small image and one without. These words are a bit difficult for Andrew, but once he practises enough with the image I will bring out the others and he should be fine. After all, he sees these words in many places!

We use our flash cards in a variety of ways. Andrew's favourite is to read the word and then smack it with an object from my utensil drawer (odd, but whatever motivates him!). We also like to turn them all upside down and take turns flipping them over and reading the word. 

I thought that some of you might be interested in printing these off for your little one, so below are the first five lists of common sight words, a blank template, and our first set of Super Heroess. Just right click on the image and save it to your computer, and then print the JPEG!

A simple number recognition activity...

I am always looking for simple ways to motivate Andrew to engage in more learning activities. He has just turned four and his abilities are really sky rocketing, unfortunately his focus is not, so we have to keep it fun!

This is a super simple Number Recognition activity that I put together today. It was a huge hit and Andrew made noticeable gains within the ten minutes that we played. It is basically a flashcard activity with the added bonus of some gross motor skills and a tasty reward!

I cut out 12 paper circles, wrote a number on each and popped them into a muffin tin. Andrew then tossed marshmallows into the cups and identified the number he landed on. If he could identify the number he got to eat the marshmallow.

As you can see, he is quite motivated by sweets... I think we'll try blueberries next time!

Looking for other simple ideas for learning at home with your little one? Check out my Pinterest Board, Learning at Home, or some of these older posts:

Patterning with Preschoolers

Fall Colour Hunt

Learning Letter Sounds

A cozy learning nook...

Hello!! Today, I am excited to share with you one of the first (and only) decorating projects I have completed in our new home! It is a cozy little learning nook that incorporates a few simple DIY projects, some dollar store finds, and an ikea purchase or two!

Our new house has two floors with a pretty standard setup,  bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, kitchen/dining and living room down. The staircase connecting the two levels is split, with a sizeable landing at the halfway point. There is a great built in bench or "niche" on this landing, that I was at a complete loss for how to decorate.  It is at the perfect height for little fingers, so a "no-go" for anything breakable or "toddler tempting". 

We had been here for a few weeks when the perfect purpose for this space came to me... a learning space for Andrew! We have the stairs gated at the top and the bottom which means Andrew can work away without being tormented by his eager little brother. 

I picked up an outdoor cushion that fits nicely at one end of the bench and added a couple of Ikea throw pillows to create a nice place to cuddle up with a book. I also used two Curtain Wires from Ikea to hang these adorable alphabet cards that I found over at The DIY Frau. The colours in these cards are wonderful, bright but muted, and I used them as a pallet for the rest of the space.

I hung a few little pails for Andrew's art supplies and made a simple art display out of clipboards and scrap booking paper (you can find the tutorial for this project here). 

When Andrew is working on some art or practising his writing, he kneels on the floor and uses the bench like a desk. He squirms around quite a bit when he is tying to focus on a learning activity, so this is a good alternative to a chair. 

I'm not sure if Andrew really appreciates how cute this space is, but that's ok, 

I can love it enough for both of us!!

Linking Up...

I Heart Organizing

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The Humble Brag

Organize It Link Party

A fall colour hunt... {learning at home}

Even though the temperature here in Baltimore has just started to dip, the vibrant colours of fall have managed to creep through and take over our surroundings. Our walks have been full of new discoveries as the trees prepare for winter, dropping leaves and all sorts of interesting treasures in our path.

By coincidence, Andrew has recently started to notice the subtle differences between the shades of colours. He is no longer satisfied with the simple labels of Blue, Red or Orange and is looking for more descriptive ways to name the colours in his world. I decided to take this new learning interest as far as I could by focusing on all of the wonderful colours of fall. I had recently picked up a pack of cardstock with a variety of earth tones that was perfect for the activity I had in mind...

We simply cut out small circles, using six different colours, labeled each one and placed them in 

the bottom of a muffin tin.

We hit the trails and collected anything that caught our attention. As we sorted the items into our muffin tin we discussed the colours that we saw. We compared the items to each other and talked about which colours were the easiest to find and which were more difficult (the botanist in me is resisting the urge to conduct repeats of the sampling to make temp. vs. colour correlations!)

This was a great little learning activity! It was super simple and served as a springboard for some great learning opportunities! We focused on new colour vocabulary and the changing seasons, but counting and the life cycle of a plants would have been great too!

How have you been enjoying the beauty of fall with your family?

Looking for more fun ways to add some learning opportunities to everyday life? Check out my Pinterest board "Learning at Home". I have developed quite the collection!

DIY Binoculars for Kids

As I mentioned yesterday, we have been having a lot of fun exploring our new neighbourhood now that the weather is cooler. The boys love to get outside and go for walks on the trails around our place. The paths are paved, which is great for the trike Henry got for his birthday, and there is no traffic so Andrew can run around freely. It's the perfect activity for that crazy hour between naps and dinner prep!

For the past week or two, Andrew has been toting a set of homemade binoculars with him on our excursions. They consist of two toilet paper rolls held together with tape, then staples, then more tape (he accidentally rips them each day and then begs for a repair). This week I decided to try and make a more durable set of binoculars that would hopefully stand up to his vigorous play.

What better material to stand up to a three years old's antics than Duct Tape!? Andrew picked out a roll of camo duct tape and I went to work! It was super simple, I covered two toilet paper rolls, attached them with a band of tape and then created a strap by folding a long piece of tape into thirds. Andrew was super impressed with my efforts!

We set to the trails with the Fall Nature Hunt I shared yesterday and had a great time in the late afternoon sun!

Linking Up

Shine on Friday

Patterning With Preschoolers

It is really hard for me to believe, but my little man will be old enough for school in September! As a December baby he will most likely be among the youngest in his class, and this along with his rambunctious personality has me concerned with his ability to focus in the classroom. We have been working on many of the literacy and numeracy skills that he will need for school, and it has been very important that they remain super engaging in order to maintain his interest. This summer, my goal is to continue learning in fun ways, but to begin including more activities that will improve his ability to complete a task.

Patterning is a great skill to work on with children of all ages. It lends itself easily to crafty activities that kids can get excited about. This morning, Andrew and I created a fun "Snack Necklace" that had him learning about patterns, counting and developing his fine motor skills. As an added bonus, he sat in a chair and focused on the project for almost ten minutes (more than you can expect for a three year old)!

For this patterning activity we used Fruity Cheerios. We started by identifying all of the colours that we had to work with and then Andrew selected three different colours to use in his Snack Necklace. I drew three cheerios in the appropriate colours to use as a planning guide.

Andrew placed one cheerio under each drawing and then we placed those cheerios on a bobby pin attached to a length of yarn. Andrew pulled the cheerios to the end of the piece of yarn and started again.

After repeating these steps a few times, I challenged Andrew to try two rows of his pattern. We practised counting the pieces of cereal as they were added to the necklace. 

Andrew was quite proud of his finished product and is really looking forward to wearing it to the park later today so that he can snack on the go!

Here are some other learning activities that your little ones might enjoy!

Chalkboard Table Games

Letter Sounds

Sidewalk Learning

Linking Up
It's Playtime - Kid's Activities Blog

Stringtown Home - Tips & Tricks
Pinterest Power Party
I Heart Naptime - Sundae Scoop